


Cora Attack (or how she spills Derek's secret accidentally)

by Analinea



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Werewolves Are Known, Babysitting, Fluff, I'm gonna stop tagging before I basically spoil the entire fic here, M/M, Misunderstandings, Teen Derek Hale, but a tiny one quickly resolved, by Beacon Hills, kid Cora, mention that Peter is a creep, or like the Hale are known to be werewolves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-03
Updated: 2016-10-03
Packaged: 2018-08-19 08:01:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8196931
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Analinea/pseuds/Analinea
Summary: Stiles has to babysit Cora (he doesn't panic), and it might be the solution to his pinning problem.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I'm trying not to say when I feel like my fics are lame, but this one feels really meh...T.T But who knows, maybe it's not that terrible and people will find their happiness reading it so! I'm posting it!  
> Also, I promised a fluffy babysitting Sterek fic, so I deliver! 
> 
> Enjoy!

_Babysitting_ , Stiles thought, gripping his steering wheel so tight his knuckles turned white. What on earth compelled him to say yes to freaking babysitting? He sighed. Stupid rhetoric question...he knew damn well what made him accept. 

He had no idea how to take care of a kid. He never, ever did before: he didn't have a little brother or sister -a train of thought he usually avoided-, Scott didn't, and the only jobs he took were either at the station or at various stores. His only knowledge came from kid movies and the heavy binge reading session he had on the internet the night before.

He had a quick thought for that short Pixar movie about Jack Jack and shuddered. He really hoped werewolves kids couldn't fly and go through walls.

Speaking of werewolves, the Hale family must have heard him parking his car in front of their huge house ten minutes ago -they surely even heard the car from two miles away or something- and probably had second thoughts on letting their little girl in the care of that teenager freaking out outside for so long.

Stiles took a deep breath and finally got out of the Jeep. Three days ago, he had been visiting his dad at the station -monitoring his diet, bribing some deputies with good coffee- and Talia Hale came out of the Sheriff's office closely followed by a grim looking Derek Hale.

Stiles could see his dad behind the glass door of his office, running a hand down his face tiredly. Whatever happened for the Hales to be here, it wasn't good. Talia smiled nonetheless when she saw Stiles.

“Hi, what a wonderful coincidence, I wanted to ask you something,” she said without really waiting for an answer to her greeting. Stiles looked between Derek, eyes set on the ground like it personally offended him, and Talia with her weird way of always looking perfect like she was doing a photo-shoot for Best Business Woman of the Year.

“Uh?” Stiles eloquently replied, which made Derek glare at him for some reason but didn't deter Mrs Hale.

“We have to go out of town this Friday afternoon, maybe come back home late into the night, and we need someone to keep Cora. I'd pay you, of course!”

Stiles' eyes were caught a second by is father leaning on his office's door frame, watching the exchange. Before he even registered what he was saying, he had accepted.

That's how he found himself walking up the pathway to the Hale's porch, because even if he had the time to think about it he wouldn't have said no. No one refuses anything when a Hale is asking. They were the best people, always helping and protecting the town in the shadows without wanting anything in return. Everybody in Beacon Hills knew they were werewolves, no one said anything out loud even in their own home. It was Beacon Hills' secret.

Stiles knocked on the door, and waited a few seconds for someone to open the, the Hales always being polite enough to pretend they couldn't hear your meal being digested from the inside of the house, and was welcomed by Talia herself.

“Stiles!” she said, seeming genuinely happy to see him and not only because he was babysitting her seven years old daughter. “Come in!”

 

–

 

Maybe playing hide and seek with a werewolf in a gigantic unknown house wasn't that great of an idea. For all Stiles knew, there were secret passages between rooms and Cora was using her enhanced senses to go around him.

“Cora!” he called for the hundredth time, tone now colored by his ever increasing frustration. He had been looking for fifteen minutes, and he started to fear he'd never find her and she would die of starvation in a closet.

Stiles had opened what felt like an infinite number of doors, quickly closing them again and hoping that his scent wouldn't make it look like he had been sticking his nose where it shouldn't have been. Maybe it was the reason he couldn't find Cora. He came closer to what seemed to be the last door on this floor -Cora agreed to say out of the last one, her parent's- and froze in the doorway. This was undoubtedly Derek's bedroom.

Stiles couldn't really say how he knew, but he did. And he couldn't step away from the sight, a battle going on in his mind between the part that respected privacy and didn't want to be maimed by an angry teenage werewolf, and the side that just wanted to know everything. Especially about this particular teenage werewolf.

“You like him, right?” suddenly came from Stiles' right as he was detailing the posters on the walls -book quotes and old movies-, and he his heart jumped so hard he put a hand to his chest to keep it inside.

“Oh my- Cora! You scared the h- heck out of me!” he told her, breathless. “I've been looking for you for ages, where were you?” he asked once he was calmer.

Cora smiled and shrugged, turning away to go back downstairs. Stiles watched her leave for a second before following her, quickly backtracking when he remembered the still open door and ran back to close it.

Cora was waiting for him in the kitchen, sitting on the table with her little legs swinging back and forth in the air. “You didn't answer! D'you like _like_ Derek?”

Stiles looked her dead in the eye as he sat down at a chair next to her, and simply said, “No”, but she chuckled.

“You know I can tell, right? It's like when Laura brought her _girlfriend_ home,” she said, drawling the word and rolling her eyes on it, and Stiles suddenly remembered being in primary school and talking with Scott about how gross his parents were when they were all smoochy. He coughed.

“You can tell?” he squeaked out, not really proud to feel nervous in front of a seven years old.

“I can smell it,” she answered, taping her nose in a conspiratory way, “and Derek smells the same.”

Stiles rubbed his temples for a second, starting to feel a headache growing at the thought of how little privacy you must have when growing up in this kind of house. Plus, a kid just smelled his crush on her brother, so he needed some time to process.

“Wait,” he said, realizing something, “Derek smells the same?” _About who?_ He wanted to ask, because that's what he really wanted to know. Who Derek had a crush on. Could it be...? But no, why a guy like Derek would want a guy like Stiles? Not counting on the fact that he had dated that Paige girl lately, so he was also straight.

Cora didn't answer, just shrugged again and hopped down the table to run into the living room, leaving Stiles to his storm of thoughts.

 

–

 

At some point, Stiles felt something soft brush against his leg. He looked down to see the most orange cat he ever saw in his entire life. Cora ran from the couch where she was waiting for Stiles to come back from his bathroom break to keep on playing Mortal Kombat -the only game Stiles' dad agreed to play with him.

“Granate!” she yelled, making grabby hands at the cat who didn't look unsettled by this in the least. He actually even came towards her so she could take him in her little arms. Stiles smiled at the sight, wondering how werewolves and cats could get along when he felt something else against his leg.

“Coal!” Cora called at the black cat. Stiles bent over to pick up the surprisingly easy-going pet, only to freeze when getting up. Following Coal, there were at least five other cats roaming the house in various places. Stiles felt like he missed something. Were they here this entire time?

“They come in around this time everyday,” Cora said, already back on the couch now occupied by two other cats on top of the one she was holding. “They're not ours exactly. Ink is Derek's favorite, by the way,” she added, pointing to the gray cat with black paws. Stiles fought the urge to drop Coal to pick up Ink.

He went back to the couch, sitting carefully between the placid guests and worked around the cat on his lap to grab his controller.

“So, um...,” he started, putting the game back on. “Where did everyone go?” he asked instead of going for a direct question about Derek and girlfriends like he wanted to. The Hale house being empty was enough of an uncommon occurrence that the question wasn't weird to ask.

Aside from the main Alpha family, with Talia, her husband and her three kids -Laura being away for college-, Stiles knew Derek had at least two uncles and three direct aunts plus their significant others, their kids, and Talia had some cousins that came around every so often. There also were some grandparents, but Stiles had no idea how many of them and whose parents they were.

Needless to say, it was a big, full of people house, which Stiles both envied and dreaded. He liked his quiet times.

“Laura's at college,” Cora explained, her attention not wavering from the fight on the TV screen, “Aunt Yao took like, half of the kids to Disney World,” she said kids like she wasn't seven years old herself, “the other half went with Uncle Sam to wherever, and the rest is at a Pack thing with Deula– Deucamion.”

Stiles processed the informations for a second. “Why aren't you with the other kids then?”

Cora looked up at him like he insulted her by calling her a kid, then huffed and focused back on the game. “I already went to Disney World. It's lame,” she pouted, then looked like she was considering the question, “Except for Buzz Lightyear, he's cool. And Belle, because she's Derek's favorite,” she finished with a smile.

Stiles frowned and went to open his mouth, but she interrupted him, “And the others _kids_ are, like, five. I'm not playing with five years olds.” Stiles nodded, acknowledging the complexity of childhood social life, then curiosity took over again.

“Belle, you said?” he asked in his most innocent tone. Cora snorted.

“Yeah, because she like books or something like that.”

Stiles filed the information away for later and raised an elbow without stopping the game to let a cat go to the other end of the couch.

 

–

 

“I don't need to be a werewolf to see you're nervous. What's happening?” Stiles asked, putting down his fork. Cora was anxiously watching the clock in the kitchen since seven rang on the various clocks in the house. The hand not holding her fork had been tapping a rapid rhythm on the table for fifteen minutes before Stiles asked.

Cora glanced quickly at Stiles and looked back down at her plate, pushing the food around. “They said they should be back by eight, and it's almost eight forty,” she sadly mumbled. “I don't want Derek to be in trouble.”

Stiles felt his heart jump a little at the words. “Why would he be in trouble?”

“Peter thought he liked that girl at school so he did something not nice, and he said to mom that it was Derek's fault,” she explained, getting more worked up with every words, “and I told mom it wasn't and she said she believed me but it was too serious to just 'take my word on it'”, she air quoted, “and Derek didn't even defend himself!”

She was panting by the end of her tirade, looking at Stiles with fire in her eyes. Stiles got up and crouched next to her, rubbing her back. He ignored the uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach at the thought of something happening to Derek.

“If you say it's not his fault, then I'm sure it'll be alright, and they'll be back soon. They're probably caught up talking about boring grown up stuff, you know, like they always do when they have guests and you just want everyone to leave but they stay at the door for ages?”

Cora looked at him with tears pooling in her little eyes, sniffling a little, then nodded quietly. She turned on her chair and got her arms around his neck. She pushed back to wipe her tears after a few seconds, then grinned.

“You're really cool, no wonder Derek loves you,” she said before gasping and clasping a hand to her mouth, eyes wide. “Shit, I promised not to tell! Shit, I'm not supposed to say shit!”

Stiles was too shocked to do anything else than stare at her before starting to laugh a little hysterically. He got up, filing Cora slip up for later, and extended his hand to her.

“Come on, lets go choose a movie, and I'll heat up the food to watch in front of the TV, okay? And they'll all be back before you know it.”

 

–

 

Cora was asleep with her head on Stiles lap, too many cats to be sure of their number all around them, sleeping or cleaning themselves or just pondering on life and the universe, when Stiles heard the sound of a key being quietly turned in the lock.

He turned his head as far as he could without waking up anyone, and Talia came in with tired, drawn features. She smiles at him warmly, and everyone else filled in the room silently. They all looked exhausted, but not desperate or sad, and Derek came in after everybody else. Stiles felt his body relax; whatever happened, Derek was back in one piece and the family looked satisfied.

Stiles couldn't help but notice that the creep uncle that came all the time around school, Peter, wasn't here. Cora stirred half awake, sidetracking him from this thought.

Everyone except Talia and Derek left to go upstairs, and Stiles, now that he was relieved of his fear for the other teen, could only think about what Cora had said, a few hours earlier. He blushed hard, earning him a weird look from the awake Hales in the room, and avoided looking at Derek as much as he could.

Talia gathered Cora in her arm, the girl mumbling something under her breath that Stiles couldn't hear but got her mother to answer as lowly, and she gave a sign that she was coming back before leaving to probably tuck Cora in her bed.

So Stiles suddenly found himself alone with Derek, and the werewolf had a closed off look on his face that didn't incite conversation. Stiles, being who he was, cleared his throat to speak in a weird attempt to alleviate the atmosphere, but was thankfully interrupted by Talia's return in the room before he could make anything worse.

“Thanks a lot for staying, Stiles,” she softly said, guiding him in the cleaned up kitchen to talk payment, while Derek stayed behind to shut down the TV. Stiles didn't know why the teen didn't leave like everyone else, supposed they had things to talk about with Talia.

Soon enough, Stiles found himself out of the house and into the Jeep, not even having the chance to see Derek again before he left. It was probably for the best. Stiles needed to sleep on it, before he said something too blunt and too soon after whatever trouble Derek had found himself into.

 

–

 

The following Monday found Stiles looking suspiciously at Paige, the girl he was so sure Derek dated. But the girl went on her day like nothing happened. He was sure she was the girl Cora had talked about though. But she even passed Derek in the corridor without acknowledging him.

Stiles avoided Derek, though. Now that he knew the guy had feeling for him to, he didn't know what to do. It was stupid, and he knew it, but it made him feel so nervous he couldn't even focus on class.

When he told Lydia about it, she huffed and said he just had to go talk to Derek, like it was that simple. It probably was, to her. Scott had been nicer, said that he could take as much time as he needed, but not too much or it would be wasted on some cool dates. He had finished by reminding Stiles that he himself wouldn't be with Allison if Stiles hadn't pushed him a little.

So Stiles was munching on his lunch while looking Derek's group of friends way. He liked Erica, even hang out with her often. She was one of his best friends, even if they didn't really see each other in school. Plus, he wasn't really friends with Boyd or Isaac, and he stayed out of Derek's way as much as he could until now. Well, even now, but that could change.

Erica caught him looking over Derek's shoulder, and grinned. She probably knew everything from the beginning. And now that he was thinking about it, now that he knew about Derek's feelings, Stiles could remember her dropping some hints that he had been too oblivious to catch.

Stiles sighed and returned his attention to the table, just as Allison sat down.

“What's happening?” she asked with her cute smile.

“Apparently D–“

“Dude! Shut up!” Stiles interrupted Scott, gesturing wildly to his ears to signify the interested party had super hearing.

“Oh, yeah, sorry. The guy Stiles' has a crush on also has a crush on Stiles.”

Stiles nervously glanced Derek's way just in time to see him leave the cafeteria with heavy angry steps, like he was about to stomp over anyone and anything in his way. Erica madly waved her hands at Stiles.

He swallowed nervously and took off after Derek before Allison could say anything, and he barely heard the protests coming from his table as he just left without taking any of his stuff.

 

–

 

Stiles was panting by the time he caught up with Derek by the track field. The werewolf was sitting on a bench, seeming to not mind the cold that made Stiles start to shiver when he finally stopped running.

Derek didn't look up at him, but he got up and wordlessly shook off his jacket to give it to Stiles, who took it gratefully if a little shakily. It was Derek's famous leather jacket, even his best friend wasn't allowed to touch it. If anything, it gave Stiles the courage to speak.

“Derek, look at me,” he said once he found himself surrounded by the warm jacket. The wolf didn't move, so Stiles got closer and hesitantly put his hand under Derek's chin.

The other teen finally raised his head but it took longer for his eyes to follow.

“Derek, why did you run away? Is it something you heard me saying?” Stiles asked, trying to remember what the conversation with Scott ended with, wondering what it meant if Derek was listening in on him. Was tuned to his voice.

Derek didn't say anything, just shook his head free and looked back at the empty field behind Stiles.

“Is it...is it because we were talking about you?” Stiles tried, “Because Cora said– So I thought– But maybe she was wrong, I mean she's seven, you know, so if it's bothering you I won't–“

“Cora said something?” Derek gritted out, and Stiles finally noticed he was looking at him fiercely again. Stiles gaped, surprised by Derek's anger.

“Yeah, she...whatever, man, just tell me if she was wrong or not!”

“Why?” Derek started yelling, getting up in Stiles space, “So you can laugh about it with your _crush_?”

And oh...that made sense, now Stiles remembered making Scott shut up, so Derek didn't _know_.

“Derek...,” he whispered, eyes wide, “You're my crush,” he finished so softly it was lucky Derek had werewolf hearing.

The teen's eyes widened in turn, and he took a step back, anger melting from his face to leave room to shock. His mouth opened just enough for Stiles to see Derek's bunny teeth, one of the cutest things in the entire world in his opinion.

“I– You...Me?” Derek stuttered, cheeks burning a flaming red, and Stiles felt his heart hammer in his chest as he blushed himself.

“Yeah, you,” he said with a shrug and a shy smile. Derek smiled in return, a bright expression on his face and he got close to Stiles again and took his hands.

“Do you want to go on a date with me?” Derek rushed out, and tear of happiness filled Stiles' eyes. All he could do was nod, too excited to let out a single word. They laughed.

Stiles looked down to compose himself but couldn't keep his eyes from going back up to see Derek through his lashes. Derek let out a shaky breath and half closed his eyes, approaching his head. Stiles got up with the program with a second of delay, which he tried to make up for but it ended up with their face connecting almost painfully.

Derek snorted when he quickly apologized, and closed the distance again. His lips on Stiles' were soft as the kiss they shared. In the distance, Stiles could swear he heard Erica and Scott cheering.

 

**Author's Note:**

> That's it, what do you think? I might go faster on writing my Derek-deserves-nice-things fic if I have comments to motivate me ;)
> 
> (I watched Jack Jack Attack again because I thought I'd find a usable quote for the title (I kinda...did?), and then it took everything I had not to make a "Baby on fire!" joke...I'm a horrible person)


End file.
